B&M Location Question...

[NellsChoo]

Attached is a page from a 1953 station & siding symbol booklet. My question is this:

Is "AIR-REDUCTION POWDER SWITCH" a thing or a location??

Curious...

[edbear]

It was an industrial complex. I don't know if the powder was munitions or pesticides or what. Dewey & Almy was the company and there was another branch of the company on the Freight Cutoff. I don't know what the relationship between Dewey & Almy and Air Reduction was; Air Reduction had a facility with a siding on the Central Mass. Branch on Route 20, just east of the East Sudbury station.

[jaymac]

Some GEarth surfing between West Concord and South Acton will show the ghosts of 2 trailing-point turnouts on the EB/#2 track a bit east of the Parker Street grade crossing.
"Powder Mill" is also a frequent name for in the area for roads -- Rte. 62 for one -- and also a shopping plaza. "American Powder Mill" as a Wikipedia entry gives a brief history of what was once both a large and dangerous operation. If the Wikipedia entry is correct, gunpowder production stopped in 1940, curious since WW II had already started in Europe, but given the persistence of names in railroading, it's not surprising that "Powder Switch" stuck as a designation.
As usual, there's probably a lot more detail.

[NellsChoo]

AHA! So there is NOT a thing called an air-reduction-switch!

HA!

Seriously though, I had a feeling there were indeed two different "locations", I just had never heard of them before so thought I'd ask around.

[130MM]

When I came to the B&M in 1985 there were four turnouts in the area: Air Reduction Co. in Track 1 (the remnants can be seen on GE), in Track 2 almost opposite Air Reduction was what we called the Mortimer Middle switch, west of that switch in Track 2 was what we called the Powder Switch, and going east around a small curve in Track 2 was the W. R. Grace switch.

So Air Reduction was a consignee siding used as a location.

[kwf]

This wiki has some info. They had a bunch of narrow gauge tracks shown on an old topo from 1918

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Powder_Mills" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://historical.northavenue.net/main ... |1901-1930" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;